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The Desert Gives Us Shade

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When the Roman Empire became   Christianized in late antiquity, many people who were dissatisfied with this ma rriage of the  empire  to the faith fled to the  Egyptian  desert to find Christ. They felt that the church had been flooded with  many who had joined it to advance socially in the Roman world. In the desert there was  purity;  there was  simplicity:  the noise of  the empire  was drowned out by the silence.    This movement produced a culture, spiritual  practices , and a body of  wisdom  called “ The Sayings of the Fathers” that we can read today. It is enlightening for several reasons, but I feel  the most poignant for modern Western Christians is that when the empire and the  church , when the cross and the flag merge too much; a radical c hange is needed. Most of us cannot retreat to the desert to find Jesus, but we do live in the “desert of the real” as Morpheus from the Matrix ...
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New Podcast is out now! "Caesar or Christ"

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Our newest podcast episode is out! This continues our series on the Kingdom of God. When people use the word "Christianity" what type of Christianity do they mean? Is it the form that tries to dominate the world by force like Caesar, or is it the type that preaches a Gospel of the Crucified Savior who loves His creation? We explore the differences and how they play into the Dominionist version that wields tremendous influence on the current administration. We will also trace back the rise of Dominionism through R.J. Rushdoony, The Latter Rain Movement, and the current New Apostolic Reformation. Click here to listen:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kingdom-of-god-part-2-caesar-or-christ/id1513545970?i=1000753394053
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Grace is a Weapon of Liberation

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Grace is a call, a weapon, not from within but from without.    A firm hand from a loving protector, a Father in Heaven.    He looks and sees me. He sees my pain; He sees my failure to be who I want to be.    He  doesn’t  hate  me  but  h olds me up when I stumble.    He does not give up on me; all I need to do is open my heart ,   and let his grace flow  down to the low places .    He will revive me and heal me.   This is the season of remembering the Passion of our Lord. We need to  remember  again who Jesus is, who the Father is, who the Spi rit is.  We must practice remembering because it is so easy to forget. I feel like I forget who God  is all the time .  My forgetfulness is the source of my alienation.  Yet,  God IS a good Father, The Son is a kind Lord, the Spirit is in me to lead me into the way of true living . The challenge is  practicing  th...
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Delivered into Our Hands

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The three disciples on the mountain  of transfiguration  must have been shaken to the very core of their being. Their teacher took off the robe so-to- speak and  showed them in blinding light and a divine presence so intense that they fell to their faces , that He  wasn’t  a teacher only, but God.  I  can’t  imagine how the three could ever see Jesus the same way again.  Usually when something so shocking  and sense-eclipsing happens to us, our brains have a habit of dimming the memory so that it doesn’t overwhelm us as we remember.  I say  this, because in the mundane of life on the road with Jesus, the memory had to be worn over with the dust and grime of living in the world. The e xalted Son who lit up the night sky was still eating, sleeping, excreting, and sweating  along with them . The robe was back  on,  and the living flame of love  was obscured  by  the  day-to-day grind  Jesus ...
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